Titanic Requiem is for SATB choir, soprano soloist, string quartet, solo cello (the soul of the Titanic) piano, and a low note source: organ, second piano/keyboard, synthesizer, double bass(es)…, which are at once a musical pedal and the drone of the Titanic's mighty engines. The instruments are, coincidentally, those on the Titanic the night it sank. The Titanic Requiem was originally commissioned for a very modest SATB choir- one person per part! The original has been revised and added to, but has lost none of the accessibility or poignancy of the original work. The text is that of the traditional Requiem mass, sections of which are interspersed with verses from a tender eulogy to the Titanic written especially for the Titanic Requiem by instrument builder and Titanic afficiano and researcher Wolfgang Kater, original commissioner of the work. The final verse of Mr. Kater’s poem is heard in the YouTube clip, (LINK?) along with the instrumental ending.

Are we condemned on our marbled globe?

The warnings ring out crystal clear.

Ice-fields loom large in our dark night,

Yet we press on. Full Steam Ahead!

To meet our fate in that cold pink dawn.

Chorus (Choir): Requiem aeternam dona nobis, Domine, Domine.

The Titanic Requiem is indeed a metaphor – and a warning - for our troubled times.

The CD TITANIC REQUIEM features a performance of this work directed by Donald Patriquin at McGill University, Montreal, in 1996.